Editing Domino theory (section)

==Other applications==
[[File:Hosni Mubarak facing the Tunisia domino effect.png|thumb|2011 political cartoon by [[Carlos Latuff]] applying domino theory imagery to the [[Arab Spring]] |alt= The cartoon depicts Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as the next to fall after the Tunisian revolution forced President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country.]]

Some foreign-policy analysts in the United States have referred to the potential spread both of [[Islamic theocracy]] and of liberal democracy in the Middle East as two different possibilities for a domino-theory scenario. During the [[Iran–Iraq War]] of 1980 to 1988 the United States and other western nations supported [[Ba'athist Iraq]], fearing the spread of Iran's radical theocracy throughout the region. In the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], some [[Neoconservatism| neoconservative]]s argued that when a democratic government is implemented, it would then help spread democracy and [[liberalism]] across the Middle East. This has been referred to as a "reverse domino theory",<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.slate.com/id/2080976/nav/navoa/ |title=The War and the Peace |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070624135941/http://www.slate.com/id/2080976/nav/navoa/ |archive-date=June 24, 2007 |first=Robert |last=Wright |work=[[Slate (magazine) |Slate]] |date=April 1, 2003}}</ref> or a "democratic domino theory",<ref>{{cite news |last=Reynolds |first=Paul |title=The 'democratic domino' theory|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2935969.stm |work= [[BBC News]] |date=April 10, 2003 |access-date=September 28, 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161003074026/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2935969.stm|archive-date= October 3, 2016|url-status= live}}</ref> so called because its effects are considered positive, not negative, by Western democratic states.

Russian analysis of a perceived pattern of pro-democratic movements in the post-Soviet era resulted in [[Vladimir Putin]]'s "domino theory of [[colour revolution]]s, reiterated by other [[siloviki]] and found in military and national security doctrines".<ref>
{{cite book
 |editor-last1         = Götz
 |editor-first1        = Elias
 |date                 = 7 December 2018
 |title                = Russia, the West, and the Ukraine Crisis
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=kHx_DwAAQBAJ
 |edition              = reprint
 |publication-place    = Abingdon
 |publisher            = Routledge
 |isbn                 = 9781351706117
 |access-date          = 18 December 2023
}} 
</ref>

Some views of successive Russian military interventions - in [[Russo-Georgian War | Georgia]] in 2008, in [[2022 Kazakh unrest | Kazakhstan]] (2022) and in [[Russo-Ukrainian War | Ukraine]] (2014 onwards), for example - postulate a domino theory whereby Putin might expand Russian influence in eastern and central Europe.<ref>
{{cite web
| url          = https://regionalsecurity.org.au/article/the-ukraine-imbroglio/
| title        = The Ukraine Imbroglio
| last         = Short
| first        = Philip
| date         = 9 October 2023
| publisher    = The Institute for Regional Security (Australia)
| access-date  = 18 December 2023
| quote        = To Ukraine's neighbours, notably Poland and the Baltic States, the war is neither colonial nor preventive but the first step in a broader Russian offensive.  'If he isn't stopped in Ukraine,' they say, 'we shall be next.' [...] Eastern Europe's threat narrative is an iteration of the infamous US domino theory of 50 years ago [...].
}}
</ref>